The president of the NewsGuild of New York called the expected layoffs "humiliating."

Hundreds of journalists — many of them copy editors at the New York Times — walked out from their offices Thursday and staged a protest in front of the newspaper's office in response to management talk of cutting the copy editing department in half.

"Top managers sat stone-faced at desks as staffers gathered about them and then walked out via the stairways," Poynter, a journalism training website, reported.

"New York Times editors, reporters, and staff will come together to leave the newsroom and their offices in protest of management’s elimination of copy editors," said a statement by the NewsGuild of New York.

Calling the expected layoffs a "humiliating process," NewsGuild President Grant Glickson, wrote in an open letter, "Cutting us down to 50 to 55 editors from more than 100, and expecting the same level of quality in the report, is dumbfoundingly unrealistic."

On Wednesday afternoon, nearly two dozen editors also wrote a letter to Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joe Kahn expressing their outrage over the cuts and demanding they reconsider the move.

Banquet said in a statement, that the newspaper has a higher ratio of editors to reporters than its competitors.

"After a year and a half of uncertainty about their futures, New York Times editors and staff have expressed feelings of betrayal by management. The staff has been offered buyouts and if a certain number of buyouts is not reached, layoffs will ensue for the editorial staff and potentially reporters as well," Glickson wrote.